Cabina Frontier

The lonesome Cabina Frontier.

Due to a lack of reliable census data, and a seeming lack of interest on the part of the Cabina government to improve said census data, there are no detailed population figures for those who live out in the desolate wastes and oceans of Cabina. However, it is estimated that the population of the Cabina Frontier ranges somewhere from four to nine million inhabitants, spread across thousands of communities ranging from towns of tens of thousands to villages of dozens.

The Cabina Frontier is an important exit point of the Vigil's Railroad.

Culture

Frontier culture is markedly different from that in the major cities. While life in the major cities is defined by living according to Repentant ideals in a largely rich and well-developed environment, life on the frontier puts those ideals to the test against an environment that is harsh and unforgiving. Frontier culture is paradoxically both open and insular. Frontier communities are always open to welcoming refugees or settlers, no questions asked, as long as they prove their willingness to make themselves useful to the community. But those same communities tend to be deeply paranoid of temporary visitors and generally distrust and dislike anyone who isn't part of their tight-knit frontier communities.

Continental Towns, Villages, and Homesteads

Outside of the three major cities of Lux Gravare, Mugenjishi, and Gadalfo, the human population of Cabina's main continent of Toterra inhabits far-flung towns, villages, and homesteads dedicated to agriculture and the exploitation of natural resources. These outposts provide essential resources for a planet far from the Imperial core, and also provide work and a safe haven for the large refugee populations that Repentant sects take in. Settlements closer to Lux Gravare and larger Cah-Binn clan-homes are connected by dedicated roads and rails, while more far-flung settlements largely rely on travelling Cah-Binn caravans for resources they are unable to produce locally. Shuttle services are able to reach anywhere, but are generally too expensive for day-to-day business and trade.

So long as refugees are peaceful and willing to work, the communities of these settlements ask few questions about their origins or backgrounds. This welcoming attitude is partly the result of putting Repentant teachings on charity into practice, but also because many inhabitants of these settlements are themselves 2nd or 3rd generation descendants of refugees. It is rumored that in addition to runaway serfs and repentant criminals, a significant part of the population of the more remote settlements is currently made up of synth refugees. The Cabinan government has assured Crux law enforcement that it has the situation firmly under control and does not require any assistance.

As part of their arrangement with the Cah-Binn, many of these settlements are also committed to contribute resources and manpower to regrowing Cabina’s devastated biosphere, typically planting Earth-native plants alongside cloned samples of Cabina’s rare surviving native vegetation.

Frontier Leagues

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In the power vacuum on Cabina left after the dissolution of The Church of Humanity, Repentant, the frontier towns were approached by various interest groups. In response, they banded together into various alliances to ensure their own common interests were protected. The two largest of these coalitions were the "League of Frontier Towns" and the "Towns of the Frontier League." The League of Frontier Towns associated itself closely with the Ankhayat family and their coffee enterprise, and the Towns of the Frontier League affirmed their association with Cabina Cups Tea.

Bumbumast Attacks

Main article: Bumbumast

A recurring issue on the continental frontier is Bumbumast attacks. These insect-like creatures, native to Cabina, were reintroduced as part of the biosphere restoration works so that they could perform their vital role in the pollination of native Cabina flora. It was known that the Bumbumast displayed a form of swarming behavior, but in their original environment this behavior had been relatively docile and its dangers easily managed. However, upon being confronted with a planet of which the vast majority of terrain was lifeless wasteland, the Bumbumast displayed an hereto unknown type of swarming behavior that biologists have called the "ur-swarm" phase.

In the ur-swarm phase, Bumbumast become extremely dangerous, and those caught by an ur-swarm without proper protection are in mortal peril. Around Cabina's major cities, advanced warning and protection systems keep the ur-swarms in check. However out in the frontier they are a continual problem, regularly costing unlucky or uncareful frontier settlers their lives.

The one bright side is that if someone has gotten themselves lost in the continental wasteland, the appearance of an ur-swarm signals that they are no more than a week out from a nearby settlement. Provided they can survive the encounter, that is.

Typical Continental Frontier Settlement

There is much diversity amongst frontier settlement. Some are villages of dozens, others are towns of hundreds of thousands. Some are a cosmopolitan mix of sector cultures, others are part of a clear diaspora still holding onto and reflecting the culture and architecture of their original home. However, the needs and methods of Cabina biosphere restoration have created a recognizable pattern that is repeated in virtually all frontier settlements, no matter their size or cultural background.

The Source of Purified Water

Like the soil, virtually all natural water on Cabina is polluted by dioxins. Though dioxin concentrations are usually low enough that drinking natural Cabinan water is almost never immediately fatal, long-term it leads to severe health risks up to and including death. And just as bad, using polluted water to irrigate crops would only result in reversing the laborious process of soil reclamation that made the land suitable for agriculture to begin with.

Thus, the start of any Cabinan settlement is a source of purified water. In some places, this takes the form of an industrial-scale water pump with in-built filtering. In other places, this takes the form of dams built in a river upstream from the settlement, again with in-built filtering to ensure that the water which actually reaches the settlement is safe for drinking and irrigation. But whichever method is considered most suitable for that particular location, it is only after a source of clean water has been secured that a settlement can begin to rise up around it.

The Village or Town

How many services are available within a local community will naturally depend on its size. In general, any settlement will at least include:

• Houses for its inhabitants.
• An open field or landing pad for shuttles.
• A storehouse to keep food and supplies, in case some problem with the planetary shuttle network requires a community to fend for itself for an extended period of time.

In addition to these pretty much mandatory features, dependent on its size a settlement is also likely to include:

• A sheriff's office, including a jail cell, for proper frontier law enforcement.
• A community centre, for communal celebrations and other gatherings
• A chapel, church, temple, or monastery. These can be ran by the community as a whole, a lone Repentant clergy, or as part of a specific Repentant sect that the entire settlement is a member of.
• A town hall, if the settlement is large enough to have rudimentary government beyond just town gatherings.
• A powerplant, whether a small building housing a generator, or a true multi-story plant, most settlements will want to preserve their access to modern technology.
• Storage for farming equipment and vehicles.
• A watchtower, from which to spot incoming shuttles and Bumbumast swarms, as well as just to enjoy the view or gaze at the stars.
• A local convenience store, in smaller settlements likely the only one in town.
• A hostel, for those settlements on routes likely to be frequented by pilgrims and/or other travelers. Though most of the Frontier would be considered fly-over country by most travelers.

Naturally, once settlements reach populations into the tens or even hundreds of thousands, the number and type of services becomes fairly indistinguishable from that of similar sized towns on any other planet. Likewise, in such settlements shuttle traffic becomes frequent and pervasive enough that only truly disastrous circumstances could cause a settlement of such a size to become isolated from the rest of the planetary community.

The Fields

Surrounding almost all continental frontier settlements are its fields, most likely tea fields, as the latter is by far the most commonly grown crop on Cabina. Though coffee has been steadily increasing its market share in recent years and decades.

The extent of the fields varies, but is usually about as much as the settlement population is able to work. Generally, smaller settlements tend to manage a larger number of hectares per inhabitant, as they are often built to grow, and larger settlements develop more significant service and manufacturing sectors, which tend to take jobs away from the land.

By and large, however, the Cabina Frontier is an agrarian society, and all but the largest frontier towns will have at least half their population work regularly in the fields or in biosphere restoration to expand the area of said fields.

The main exception to this are the purely religious settlements: temples and monasteries built directly in the wasteland without any biosphere restoration around them. Though these settlements are completely dependent on outside supplies for their survival, numerous such settlements still dot the Cabina landscapes. From sites of pilgrimage, to meditative retreats, there has never been a shortage of reasons motivating people to seek to build in the wastes regardless of suitability or practicality.

The Groves

Surrounding the fields, like a shield of green, are almost always trees. The treeline forms a vital part of the biosphere restoration that allows the land they surround to become and remain fertile. Rooting in the soil, they help lessen the amount and severity of dust storms on the planet, and they prevent any stray gust of wind from blowing polluted soil right back onto the laboriously purified farmland.

Just as vital, though often less appreciated, the groves are also the main habitat of the pollinating Bumbumast. Though in their natural state, in the midst of flourishing nature, the insects are no more dangerous than your average mosquito or wasp, the terror inspired by the ravenous Bumbumast ur-swarms has nevertheless made people wary of approaching the species' nests altogether.

In most places, the groves are continually being expanded. Every few years the ring expands outwards by another line of trees, allowing the inhabitants of the settlement to expand their farmland by cutting down a line of trees on the inner side of the ring. In larger settlements, fields may be interspersed with groves and parks, intermingling other varieties of biosphere restoration expansion with the crops.

The Grass

Beyond the forests lay fields of grass, locked in a constant seesaw with the polluted wastes that stretch endlessly up to and beyond the horizon. The grasslands represent the first phase of reclaimed land, and thus the most tenuous: this is ground zero of the biosphere restoration. Wind, dust storms, even the rain constantly threatens to re-pollute the soil, as the inhabitants of the settlement continually work to reclaim it. Once the soil has been successfully reclaimed, it allows for the treeline to be expanded, and Cabina takes one more tiny step towards full restoration.

However, working in the grass is also one of the most dangerous jobs there is on the largely peaceful frontier. Though overall rare, the grass fields are where 90% of the victims of Bumbumast ur-swarms meet their grizzly fate. Returning from a failed 'expedition' into the Cabina wasteland, the ravenous insects eat their way through the grass and anyone unfortunate enough to be standing on it without protective gear. Once the swarm reaches the treeline, the insects will try and eat the bark of the tree's, fail, and kill themselves in the process, but one does not want to get caught in their path before that.

Island Towns, Villages, and Homesteads

Roughly a third of the frontier population lives not on the continent, but on archipelago's dispersed throughout Cabina's single great ocean, Maromnis. Island towns, villages, and homesteads are fairly similar to their continental counterparts, except that they are even more isolated and insular. A very small number of Cah-Binn tribes live and travel the oceans, having adapted their exoframes to float and travel the waters by both sail and more advanced means of oceangoing. Generally speaking, the island communities see no visitors except monthly Cabina Cups or Ankhayat Coffee shuttles, bringing supplies in exchange for the local tea or coffee harvest. Only occasionally will such a shuttle bring with it new refugees and/or settlers to increase the local population. These are received with even more wariness, and even less questions, than they'd find in continental frontier communities.

In addition to whatever room there is for crops (both land-based agriculture, and the ocean-based mangrove and kelp species), most oceanic frontier towns maintain a coral forest in the waters near their settlement. These corals provide little of value for the local community aside from their use in stabilizing mangrove aquaculture, but the work to maintain or expand them is subsidized by SERAPH, commonly through reinvested revenue from the Cabina Cups Tea Company and Ankhayat Coffee Company).

Major Settlements

Bostra

A large frontier settlement largely formed of Tiber and Demnoph emigrants, with a fair amount of pre-established knowledge of coffee-growth, and one of the first broad successes of the Eridanus Ankhayat family in introducing their coffee plant to Cabina. A hub of plantations and drying/processing centers.

Ninurta

Main article: Ninurta

Ninurta is one of Cabina’s larger tea plantations, and, to those in the know, one of the major exit points for those on Vigil's Railroad on the planet.

It is part of a larger biosphere reclamation project. The central town serves as the main reclamation area, slowly expanding over time. Each individual settlement of the plantation is also established as an individual node in the reclamation and expansion of the plantation. As each settlement expands, more and more of the surrounding land is reclaimed, and various nodes are connected to each other and the area surrounding the town.

New arrivals are distributed among the plantation’s many villages, where they are welcomed by the locals and brought into their communities. Individual cells who smuggle refugees onto Cabina manage specific settlements. Given the decentralised nature of the cells, no single person is aware which settlements, if any, are home to refugees except for their own. Cells are often organised on the basis of faith. Each settlement has developed a specific cultural lineage overtime. As new people stay at the settlement, they impart their own customs and teachings to the people of the settlement, but adopt those of the settlement as well.

Varmborg

The town of Varmborg is one of the largest towns of the frontier, and the center of a thriving Chrates-Cabinan community numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Chrates is a cold world, inhabited by a cold people. Ruled by the so-called ‘Frostnax’, estranged relatives of House Fornax, it is a harsh world both in- and outside of its bubble cities. Over the centuries, many thousands of Chrates natives have made the journey to emigrate to the Cabina Frontier which, if no less harsh, is certainly a warmer place to live. The majority settled in the town of Varmborg, the city steadily growing to its current size over several centuries.

Especially to those not otherwise very familiar with frontier towns, Vamborg has become famous for its export of Chrates Chai, one of the many artisanal flavors of Cabina Cups Tea Company. Chrates-Cabinans developed the habit of drinking it iced, as well as hot, to remind them of home. It is a powerful blend of black tea mixed with cardamom and a fine selection of spices. The inclusion of black peppers gives it an extra kick and long-lasting flavor.

Warui Katachi (Little Hong Lu)

See also: Operation Powdered Snow

The city of Warui Katachi sprang into existence due to the large numbers of Hong Luan refugees fleeing the north for a better place to live.  The government of Cabina generously accepted the refugees and provided them some land attached to the foundation of the Endoholophusikon.

Utilizing House Triangulum standard-template construction techniques, buildings, arcologies, and habitats were constructed in orbit and delivered to the surface to provide quick and accessible shelter to the refugees.  Using their Hong Luan entrepreneur spirit, large businesses and a fairly healthy economy quickly took shape.

Snow-covered city of Warui Katachi aka Little Hong Lu

Unfortunately, where there is a Hong Luan, there is a criminal not far behind. Naturally opportunistic, the former Red Dogs who took the trip with the refugees have already begun franchising and opening nefarious businesses around Warui Katachi and other parts of the planet.  Crime has seen a slight uptick with the influx of refugees but the Governor is adamant that these are within the margin of error of the studies.

The complex shape of the Endokon was considered good luck by many of the locals, who referred to the area as lucky with its presence. Eventually, the idea of the lucky shapes took root and the oriental Hong Luan refugees started to colloquially refer to the city as Warui Katachi, which is said to be the local translation of lucky shapes.

Still a relatively small settlement in comparison to some of the larger cities on Cabina, it has nevertheless become a popular tourist destination for the literal, out-of-this-world ramen noodles.

Young Blood and Old Dust

Main article: Young Blood and Old Dust

A PRISM television series set in the fictional town of Everwillows in the Cabina Frontier. It ran for 52 seasons, before it was discontinued during the height of the War Against the Artificials.

Notable Frontier NPCs

Main article: Notable Cabinan NPCs

These characters were explicitly made to serve as NPC's on the Cabinan Frontier, reflecting the culture and setting of the frontier. Anyone writing Cabina lore or playing a role-playing game set on Cabina should feel encouraged to reference these characters or have them cameo.